Arkansas Health Impact Award

Dr. Tom Bruce Arkansas Health Impact Award

ACHI’s Health Policy Board established the Dr. Tom Bruce Arkansas Health Impact Award in honor of the late Dr. Tom Bruce, a national leader in community health and a champion of rural health and health system improvement in Arkansas. The annual award honors an individual — or individuals — who embodies Dr. Bruce’s lifetime of service by demonstrating courageous leadership and a sustained record of being a catalyst for improving the health of all Arkansans, and who exemplifies ACHI’s core values of trust, commitment, innovation, and initiative.

Dr. Bruce was dean of the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) College of Medicine for a decade and a pioneer in the field of community-based public health. He was also the inaugural dean of the College of Public Health at UAMS and dean pro tem of the Clinton School of Public Service. Dr. Bruce is remembered for improving and expanding the College of Medicine and addressing a shortage of physicians in Arkansas’s rural areas through the formation of Area Health Education Centers, which bring physician trainees to less-populated areas of the state. He and his wife, Dolores, also paved the way for the establishment of ACHI through a seed donation.